Researching new technology is mainly related to the Galaxy structures, it gives you the technology to build and upgrade the structures you will build in the Galaxy. The purpose of the Galaxy structures is to gather as much resources as possible and use them to build and expand the satructures and mothership modules.

The science Interface: It can be accessed trough the mothership menu, lower right, a pic of a science graph, or in the Galaxy via the Science Interface button. You will notice you can only see new technology as you research more and more of them, aslo in order to get to some of the higher techonologies you will have to raise the level of the previous ones. Each technology level will give you a specified bonus or expand the number of additional modules your could build on a structure in the Galaxy.

There are a number of research categories, the first one is for the general building structures in the galaxy. After you researched the space station for example, you can build it in the Galaxy by accessing the System Build button, next to the System Fleets button. The second research category deals with upgrades to the space station. One particularry important tech here is the fighters / missile tech. In order to protect your station, you will need as high level as possible for the fighters / missiles, as the tech level will boost them in combat. Also remember to stock the station with a good number of fighters / missiles. There is no max amount of fightes / missiles you could have on the station.

Another particulary important module here is the cloaking techonlogy. It will enable you to build a cloaking module on a space station, the cloaking affect the structures in the system, as well as the system fleets you assigned. It will protect them from beeing spoted / attacked by the enemy. The enemy has to match your cloaking modules on the station with his Subspace Scanner technology before he can even target your fleets / facility. It a great tactic for evading more powerfull enemies. Notice the cloaking technology is less expensive then the scanner techonlogy, provided you dedicate your research in the cloaking and hiding instead of scanning and attacking, you should be relatively safe. Cloaking will only work on non alliance commanders, alliance members will be able to see cloaked alliance bases / fleets, provided they know the coordinates.

Emergency warp bubble technology: A great addition to a space station defence evasive capability. If you manage to install one of those modules on your station, the station should be able to warp in case it loses structural integrity from an attack. It is the last resort, and it will save your hard work and missiles / fighters / modules you installed on the space station. Unfortunately, it will not save the mining facility or your system fleets from beeing wiped out, and the emergency warpmodule is destroyed in the process, but your station lives to fight another day.

Stations / structures in warp bubble can be redeployed via the System Building room, they show up under Undeployed structures. You can deploy them just like building them, however they have all the modules / resources on them. Of course normal building conditions apply, no reavers, or other commander fleets.